We are in solidarity with more than 50 Black Canadian Producers, who are calling for the implementation of a Black Screen Office to address the systemically racist barriers Black Producers face in the domestic film and television industry.

The call was recently made in an open letter to the Minister of Canadian Heritage.

As Black Canadian professionals in the screen-based media sector, from coast to coast to coast, we are writing to you to request a meeting to discuss how we can work together to eliminate the unacknowledged anti-Black racism in the Canadian screen-based industries. We believe unfair policies and practices that disenfranchise and discriminate against Black Canadian creators and producers are embedded in the film and TV industry. We want to bring this to your attention and impress on you that much change is needed.  

Sparked by the global outrage and protests over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery in the US, and amplified in Canada by the off-duty police assault of Dafonte Miller, and death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, as well as the devastating impact of COVID-19 on Black and Brown communities, Canada must reckon with its own history of anti-Black racism. As part of this reckoning, Canada’s cultural and screen-based industries must remove its systemically racist barriers to access and achievement, and embrace real transformative change. 

You can learn more about the action in Playback and the Hollywood Reporter.